The Houston Rockets will host the New York Knicks on Saturday night, well rested, in high spirits and healthy. The Knicks are also much different team when deprived of their raucous crowd and don’t shoot nearly as well as in MSG. While this looks like almost a certain home victory, let see if there some profit to be made.
Knicks at Rockets
Spread: Houston 13.5 (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: o/u 219 points (-110)
The Knicks follow the script, come back to win over Toronto
Going on a road trip in good mood means much for a team, especially one that doesn’t win many games outside their arena, like the New York Knicks. Turning an 11-point deficit in +20 in just one quarter will certainly lift you up. That’s exactly what the Knicks managed to pull out against the visiting Toronto Raptors in their final home game – beating the Eastern Conference rival 108-100 and 41-10 in the crucial third quarter.
It’s not the first time the Knicks have managed to pull out a come-from-behind victory either. In fact, they tend to start playing only when they fall behind. Winning from those situations are part luck, part resiliency, and both factored in the last game. The Knicks held their part early, but once the second units enter the game, the shots kept clanking at the rim and the deficit grew. They couldn’t pull back as each time they scored, the Raptors would respond, bombing the Knicks from the perimeter from all angles. Then the halftime came, and the Raptors cooled off. The Knicks opened the third with a 28-0 run, holding their opponents to just one made a field goal, frustrating them with solid defense and killer offense. Tim Hardaway Jr. had a career-high 38 points and a pair of threes that nailed the victory after the Raptors managed to pull back in the fourth quarter. He was all over the court, adding 7 assists, 6 rebounds, and 5 fouls. Kristaps Porzingis fared much better against the long, athletic Raptors wing-forwards this time around, scoring 22 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Lee played one of the better games this season, going 7-of-12 for 15 points and adding 7 dimes and 5 boards, all while holding DeRozan to just 7 points after his 11 points first quarter outburst.
This is the tail end of a road back-to-back for the Knicks, as they play tonight in Atlanta. They are healthy prior to that game, but please check the team news after the buzzer just to make sure it stayed that way coming into this one.
Place: Toyota Center, Houston, Texas
Date/Time: Saturday, November 25th, 2017. 8:00 PM ET
TV Coverage: NBATV
The Rockets crush Nuggets at home 125-95
The Houston Rockets show no signs of slowing down. They blew out their third opponent in a row, the Denver Nuggets, to enter the Thanksgiving break leading the conference.
The Rockets missed their first six shots of the game, but then proceeded to go 26 for their next 29 from the field and built a 35-point lead before the break. The lead would eventually grow to 50 at one point in the second half. Oh, and that was with both Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson missing the game with illness/injury. The Rockets shot 55 percent overall for the game and went 18-41 from three, and they racked up 30 assists on their 45 buckets in a dominating offensive performance. Harden finished with 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists and Paul couldn’t miss a shot, knocking them down from midrange and perimeter. He was 8-of-11 from the field and 4-of-7 from deep. In addition to the big nights from Harden and Paul, the Rockets also got 25 points from Trevor Ariza, who shot 7-10 from beyond the arc. They also got 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals from Luc Mbah a Moute, who played the best plus/minus game in over twenty years, finishing with an astonishing +57 in 26 minutes of play! Capela had issues with Jokic, so the Rockets switched him for Nene, and the veteran showed that he has plenty left in the tank. The Rockets were in their full switching defense mode, forcing turnovers and dominating the glass. They have held opponents to 100 points or fewer in four of their past six games.
Gordon sat out to rest bruised calf and Anderson was sick, so it won’t be too long before they return, possibly even for this game. There are no official updates yet, so consider them both questionable to play. Paul’s minutes have been on a rise, despite the Rockets needing to play fewer minutes to their top unit ever since he returned from injury.
New York Knicks at Houston Rockets Game Trends & Prediction
The Knicks covered in their last two games, and 8 of their last 10, but all of their success comes at home. They are 11-6 against the spread overall, and 10-2 in New York. The road games are in obvious deficit, and the stats don’t include the game in Atlanta on Friday night. At the totals markets, the Knicks have went 7-10 so far, but no overs happened on their five road games.
The Rockets have won 10 games by double-digits, helping their 11-6 ATS record. They’ve dominated at home too, covering the spread in 10 of their first 12 games in Toyota Center. The overs haven’t been there with that much regularity. I went for the overs against Denver, only to see Jokic injured, Anderson and Gordon held back at the tip-off and it cam close, but not close enough, as the third stringers played the entire fourth quarter. The Rockets are just 8-10 against the total points market, largely due to blowing teams out.
Admi-Rank: The Rockets continue their rise and hold a distinct second place in both West and entire NBA. The Knicks are on an uptrend, but still ain’t good enough to be considered average, especially not on the road.
The Rockets have outscored opponents by 17.6 points per 100 possessions in November, losing once and needing just one close win all month. The Rockets have been so dominant, while they have the No. 2 offense in the league, they are last by a wide margin in the fourth quarter because they have so often spent the much of the final quarters with their regulars on the bench. However, they’ve played one of the weakest schedules thus far, practicing how to dispose of teams like the Knicks.
I don’t believe that the Knicks will manage to pull back from another large deficit without the support of their fans, so I’m not too tempted by the 13.5-point handicap. Instead, my attention goes to the highly enticing line of 219 points. The line is lower than it should be as the Rockets played many defensive guys in the last game, and the Knicks struggled to score on the road. This should change in this game, so go ahead and grab the great value on the over side.
My Pick: (no wager on the spread)
Total: over 219 points (-110)
